Toon sweep Manchester United aside in 3-0 victory at St James’ Park
Posted on January 4th, 2012 | 24 Comments |
The match started at a lively pace and it was pretty much box-to-box stuff for the first half.
The first decent chance fell to us on about 4 minutes when Simpson put in an excellent cross along the ground to Demba Ba, who was right in front of goal. Unfortunately it was slightly behind him and he couldn’t gather it for a shot.
Just over a minute later, Cabaye tested Anders Lindegaard after Ba nodded the ball down to him just outside the box. Unfortunately it was straight at the keeper and turned out to be an easy save.
Man Utd came close after 14 minutes though when a Berbatov header took a deflection and bounced off the post.
After 19 minutes an accidental handball by Cabaye led to a Man United free kick in a dangerous area. Fortunately Rooney’s free kick deflected off Tiote for a corner, which itself came to nothing.
A couple of minutes later Man Utd looked certain to score when an excellent pass by Giggs found Rooney onside ahead of our centre-backs, right in front of goal. Fortunately for us, Rooney simply couldn’t gather up the ball at all, let alone get a shot off.
At 24 and half minutes we had what looked like a cast-iron penalty appeal waved away by Howard Webb. Rio Ferdinand dragged away Demba Ba’s legs in the area and the entire population of the world thought it was a penalty except for Howard Webb (and Dwight Yorke in the studio at half-time), who was having a good half for Man Utd and a few minutes later he gave an incredible free kick in Man Utd’s favour after Rio Ferdinand felled Demba Ba after using him as a climbing frame.
The breakthrough came on about 32 minutes though and it was in our favour. A long kick by Krul by was nodded on by Ameobi to Ba who took it on the first bounce at knee height and planted it in the top-left corner of the goal. 1-0.
Man Utd tried to get back into the game for the next 10 minutes or so, but were rendered impotent by our defence.
Ryan Taylor put a free kick just over the bar after a weak Demba Ba shot saw him fouled in the process and Ba managed another shot in second minute of extra time but couldn’t connect cleanly with it.
Half Time
It seems Howard Webb had put is contact lenses in for the second half and Phil Jones was given a yellow card for a foul on Ba. Yohan Cabaye stepped up to take the resulting free kick from about 30 yards and it was a cracker. He hit it hard into the top-left corner – it might have just skimmed Lindegaard’s finger-tips but it hit the crossbar and bounced down over the line for our second goal. 2-0.
We kept on trying to go forward, not content with a mere 2-0 and at about 53 minutes we had a couple of corners that looked promising except that our players seemed to be getting in each others’ way and in the end Williamson headed it over the Man Utd crossbar.
At 56 minutes Man Utd brought on Wellbeck for Berbatov and there followed what was probably Man Utd’s best 5 minutes of the game, ending up with the ball ping-ponging around in our area and being cleared off the line by Danny Simpson.
Antonio Valencia was next in the book when he was yellow-carded for clattering Jonas to the ground, although I thought it was a bit harsh after seeing the replay.
There was a minor worry at 64 minutes as Mr T was down clutching at his hamstring for a few minutes but he seemed to make a complete recovery, which was also about the time Man Utd made their second substitution, taking off Park and bringing on Hernandez.
Tiote snatched possession off Man Utd in midfield and set Shola on his way in what looked like a good position, although in the end all he could manage to get was a corner. Ba nearly had another chance a few minutes later but simply couldn’t gather the ball inside their area.
On 74 minutes, Man Utd took off Rooney and brought on Anderson while we took off Ameobi and brought on Best, then a couple of minutes later Perch came on for Cabaye to try and shut up shop defensively.
Tiote picked up a yellow card for a professional foul on Carrick and then we had to defend a brace of corners, which didn’t really cause us too much trouble. A rare mistake by Colo meant that Krul had to make a hurried save a few minutes later but otherwise we looked pretty solid defensively.
On 89 minutes we substituted Ba for Obertan and, just as it was looking like a matter of running down the clock, a long kick from Krul went to Phil Jones but with Leon Best breathing down his neck he got a bit flustered about matters and he either chested or shouldered it past his own keeper. 3-0.
An that was it. A win we fully deserved. It’s probably fair to say that Man Utd were below par tonight but we looked organised, battled well and deserved the three points.
Stand-out players for me were Cabaye, Tiote, Ba and Santon, who still has some way to go but looks to have the makings of a good attacking full-back. Colo was up to his usual excellent standard of course. I thought Jonas had a poor game and Shola was mediocre at best but we looked a number of degrees better and more assured than we were against Liverpool last Friday.
Newcastle: Krul, Coloccini, Santon, Simpson, Williamson, R Taylor, Cabaye (Perch 77), Gutierrez, Tiote (Y), Ba (Obertan 89), Sh Ameobi (Best 75).
Man Utd: Lindegaard, Evra, Jones (Y), Ferdinand, Giggs, Park Ji-sung (Hernandez 66), Carrick, Nani, Valencia (Y), Berbatov (Welbeck 57), Rooney (Anderson 74), Webb.
Match highlights and post match interviews.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
Hugh,
you got in there super quick.
Drat!
I was gonna write this bugger up, i got to see every minute for a change.
:(
Great job though mate!
:)